How Splash Damage crafted Dirty Bomb into a modern online shooter for Western hardcore fans

Dirty Bomb is a fast-action shooter that will remind you of the run-and-gun games from the early days of shooters. It’s a game for hardcore shooter fans, made for the age of free-to-play and e-sports.

Splash Damage, the developer of the online free-to-play shooter that is being published by Asian gaming giant Nexon, built the game in the spirit of one of its predecessor games, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, an online shooter that debuted in 2007. We got a good look at the near-final game at a Nexon event in San Francisco this week. It has a lot of modes, like 5-on-5 combat that will appeal to the e-sports fan. And it isn’t a high-pressure free-to-play game, where you have to spend money to gain victory. Rather, it has seven characters to choose from, and it rotates the characters so three are available at any given time. If you want to have one character permanently, you have to pay. That’s a player-friendly monetization model that Western gamers will like.